Friends
by Richie S
Summary: Silk Fox and Dawn Star realize they have more in common than they thought. It starts off good but in all honesty I think it gets weak at the end, I guess I ran out of steam. A good idea though, I'm surprised it has not been tried sooner.


**Silk fox's thoughts**

_Dawn Star's thoughts_

Their combined thoughts

I have never been fond of my cousin.

**She was this ignorant country girl.**

_She was an arrogant bitch_.

**She thought only of her precious master.**

_She_ _thought only of vindicating her father_.

**All she did was whine and waste energy on useless charity.**

_All she did was whine and think of herself while ignoring others._

**She was so arrogant in her world view, she had only known her simple life, and how dare she judge others!**

_Her ridiculous pride never ceased to amaze me. Her masquerade was protected by her royal status, she never had to take any real responsibility, yet she never stopped judging._

**She took the Way of the Open Palm to ridiculous extremes.**

_She was so wishy-washy on her personal philosophy._

**But with all that said she did know how to carry herself in a fight**.

_Her use of the long sword was masterful; she took full advantage of its grace and speed._

**But that is where the similarities ended between us. I think I disliked her because she was so different from me. I looked up to people who were like me, people who were independent and strong-willed. Someone who did not kowtow to others and let others force there but instead had others obeying there will and then not by brute strength but instead by commanding respect.**

_She was a capable fighter, I fully admit that. Yet our mutual animosity stemmed from us being so different. She was selfish only thinking of things that affected her and her father. She was so sure of her point of view that she never bothered questioning it. She complained about her birthright and how she never wanted it._

Then following the battle at the palace and fleeing the chaos I found myself speaking with her out of necessity. With all that had gone on I had to talk to someone about life's latest surprise. Then I realized both to my delight and horror that she was just like me.

**We bonded with each other! During the interim time we talked realized that we had in common and realized that we were in fact friends.**

_We had hated each other because of our differences only to realize that we were just like each other. No wonder we were related! _

**Then in that lull in Dirge between the bridge and the remainder of the battle I found out that she actually had a sense of humor.**

_Though I hate to admit she could crack a pretty good joke even in the heat of battle._

**It was during that brief moment of levity that it happened. A mortally wounded Lotus Assassin had jumped from the bridge before it collapsed and scaled the mountain and came up behind us brandishing a throwing knife. I did not see it but she did, all I knew was that she had shoved me out of the way and that she had a gash on her abdomen. **

_It was not a bad cut I was still able to fight with the wound. It did leave a mark though, a crescent shaped scar above my navel and beneath my breast. At first I did not even notice that I was cut until I felt a warm liquid running from my body._

**She had knocked me out of the way and I realized as I saw the gash that if the blade had connected with me then I would have been incapacitated which in this situation was as good as being dead. I found myself looking at her with some amount of incredulity, here we were jesting but a moment earlier and here we had a brush with death and she was scarred and all of this with a person that but recently she had not been overly fond of.**

_I do not think that I could ever forget the look on her face, from reading her I was able to extract that not only was she thankful to me for saving her but that she was also shocked that humor and danger could be so closely intertwined. This of course was not to be matched by the fact that her savior was person she could barely stand but a short time ago._

**What could I express, relief, thanks, joy? All of these things raced through me without restraint. Ironically I had faced death before but this was the first time I had felt such relief at the amazing intensity that now coursed through me. I suddenly felt my body moving towards my savior.**

_I could feel the positive emotion radiating from her body, much less seeing it on her face as she got closer to me She approached as if to grapple with me and pulled me into an embrace. I found my vision somewhat blurred and was surprised to realize that my eyes were being obstructed by tears. I was equally surprised when I also felt her tears dripping down on me._

**I had cried after I fled the palace as she had. The world was turned upside down, up was down and black was white, but this was different. These were tears of relief that not only had I cheated death but a friend had come from an enemy. **

_As she held me I felt this overwhelmign sense of peace, a peace that I had not felt since fleeing Two Rivers and I realized that I had found someone incredibly similar to me and my friendship with them was a source of comfort._

How could this hace come form her and in such a short time?

**I had no idea this was even possible.**

_Perhaps it was some celestial prank?_

Nevertheless I accepted her support and recognized her for the friend that she was.


End file.
